I do believe that someone at UC Davis just blocked me from seeing the seminar Zoom. My display name said "UC Access Now" because I used to pay for UC Access Now's acct and that's what Zoom defaults to. I gather someone saw that and thought, "Not that uppity disabled person" and blocked me.
So just as it was when I was a grad student there, I don't have access. #Ableism #NeoliberalHellhole #PlantScience
Public paid for the research:
"This research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (HD094623, HD059205, MH084164) and National Science Foundation (DRL-2024856) to V.M. and Stanford Maternal & Child Health Research Institute Postdoctoral Support Award to H.C. and P.M."
And the journal it's published in has a box on the front page thanking reviewers for working for free.
Yet it's behind a paywall.
https://www.jneurosci.org/content/early/2026/01/30/JNEUROSCI.2385-24.2025
Mathematical learning disabilities (MLD) affect up to 14% of school-age children, yet the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms remain elusive. We developed Drift Diffusion Model with Dynamic Performance Monitoring (DDM-DPM), an innovative cognitive model that captures both external and internal sources of structural variability in task performance. Combining DDM-DPM with functional brain imaging, we examined symbolic and non-symbolic quantity discrimination in female and male children with MLD and typically developing children matched on age, gender, and IQ. Children with MLD showed format-dependent alterations in response caution and post-error adjustment, despite similar observed performance measures between groups. The latent cognitive processes during symbolic quantity discrimination predicted broader mathematical abilities better than those during non-symbolic quantity discrimination. Neuroimaging results revealed that reduced activity in middle frontal gyrus mediated deficits in response caution in symbolic format, while reduced activity in the anterior cingulate cortex mediated deficits in post-error adjustment in symbolic format in children with MLD. These findings provide novel support for a multidimensional deficit view of MLD that extends beyond basic number processing to include metacognitive processes. Our findings also provide novel support for and extend the access deficit model, which posits that individuals with MLD may have relatively intact quantity representations but struggle with numerical representations in symbolic formats. Our study highlights the value of integrating latent cognitive modeling with neuroimaging to reveal subtle mechanisms underlying learning disabilities and identify potential targets for intervention. Significance Statement Considerable debate exists regarding the nature of deficits in mathematical learning disabilities (MLD). By developing an innovative computational model that captures subtle aspects of decision-making processes, we reveal that children with MLD show specific difficulties in adapting their problem-solving strategies when working with numerical symbols. Using brain imaging, we found that these difficulties are linked to reduced activity in brain regions involved in monitoring and adjusting behavior. Importantly, these deficits were specific to symbolic number processing and predicted children's broader mathematical abilities. Our findings suggest that MLD involves not only difficulties with basic number processing, but also problems in regulating cognitive strategies when working with numerical symbols. This insight could lead to more effective interventions for children struggling with mathematics.
UC Davis Library Resources Cancelled Due to Budget Cuts
https://library.ucdavis.edu/leadership-mission-and-strategy/budget/resources-cancelled/ #NeoliberalHellhole
To meet the budget reductions assigned by campus, the library is canceling subscriptions to selected resources, including: Below is a list of titles to be canceled. Most cancellations go into effect January 1, 2026, except where otherwise noted. There will be more cuts. This list is current as of October...
Hey, the UC President who didn't respond to or credit UC Access Now (while coopting a few things we pushed for), who enabled right-wing types by appeasing them on UC campuses and not taking a strong stand against them is getting something named after him, and it's not a teeter-totter.
This ophthalmologist presided over a UC that wasn't even highest common denominator for those with vision disabilities, much less other kinds...
https://chancellor.ucsf.edu/news/recognizing-uc-president-emeritus-michael-drake #Ableism #NeoliberalHellhole
It was already bad enough that University of California was using Box to post what should be publicly available documents instead of using publicly-owned servers, but this?
Who "ideated" this?
"“This is a revenue-generating opportunity for UC San Diego,” says Pollak. “Every school has its own branding and name, but we’re running it as a software service for them, augmenting our team to be able to support these other universities that may not have the same environment or resources to create a product like this.”"
Remember what our public university was like before neoliberalism? Where public higher education was a public good and where UC wouldn't have its left hand charging its right hand to do something? #NeoliberalHellhole
Sacramento State freshmen must live on campus for 2 years starting next year, under new policy
Community colleges in California need housing, but requiring freshman to use it for a given period is the wrong approach, IMO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bsr9JcHgiGw #Housing #NeoliberalHellhole
It was already suspect that UC puts so many documents that should be public on Box instead of UC-owned servers.
Now this is even worse because Box has added agentic AI. Who is going to hold UC accountable, though? #NeoliberalHellhole
Because of neoliberal shitfuckery, transcript orders, which used to be filled by the university itself once upon a time...can now only be fulfilled through Parchment, owned by Instructure.
So you have to agree to Parchment's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy and be subject to yet another vector for data leakage in order to get your transcript. Which, of course, other institutions require of you because they don't trust your own copy.
Megan Lynch (she/her)
UC Access Now